The following background description constitutes a description of the background to the present invention, and thus need not necessarily constitute prior art.
In connection with increased government interests concerning pollution and air quality, primarily in urban areas, emission standards and regulations regarding emissions from combustion engines have been drafted in many jurisdictions.
Such emission standards often consist of requirements defining acceptable limits of exhaust emissions from combustion engines in, for example, vehicles. For example, emission levels of nitrogen oxides NOx, hydrocarbons CxHy, carbon monoxide CO and particles PM are often regulated by such standards for most types of vehicles. Vehicles equipped with combustion engines typically give rise to such emissions in varying degrees. In this document, the invention will be described mainly for its application in vehicles. However, the invention may be used in substantially all applications where combustion engines are used, for example in vessels such as ships or aeroplanes/helicopters, wherein regulations and/or standards for such applications limit emissions from the combustion engines.
In an effort to comply with these emission standards, the exhausts caused by the combustion of the combustion engine are treated (purified).
A common way of treating exhausts from a combustion engine consists of a so-called catalytic purification process, which is why vehicles equipped with a combustion engine usually comprise at least one catalyst. There are different types of catalysts, where the different respective types may be suitable depending on for example the combustion concept, combustion strategies and/or fuel types which are used in the vehicles, and/or the types of compounds in the exhaust stream to be purified. In relation to at least nitrous gases (nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide), referred to below as nitrogen oxides NOx, vehicles often comprise a catalyst, wherein an additive is supplied to the exhaust stream resulting from the combustion in the combustion engine, in order to reduce nitrogen oxides NOx, primarily to nitrogen gas and aqueous vapor.
SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) catalysts are a commonly used type of catalyst for this type of reduction, primarily for heavy goods vehicles. SCR catalysts usually use ammonia NH3, or a composition from which ammonia may be generated/formed, as an additive to reduce the amount of nitrogen oxides NOx in the exhausts. The additive is injected into the exhaust stream resulting from the combustion engine upstream of the catalyst. The additive added to the catalyst is adsorbed (stored) in the catalyst, in the form of ammoniac NH3, so that a redox-reaction may occur between nitrogen oxides NOx in the exhausts and ammonia NH3 available via the additive.
A modern combustion engine is a system where there is cooperation and mutual impact between the engine and the exhaust treatment. Specifically, there is a correlation between the exhaust treatment system's ability to reduce nitrogen oxides NOx and the fuel efficiency of the combustion engine. For the combustion engine, there is a correlation between the engine's fuel efficiency/total efficiency and the nitrogen oxides NOx produced by it. This correlation specifies that for a given system there is a positive correlation between nitrogen oxides NOx produced and fuel efficiency, in other words that an engine, which is permitted to emit more nitrogen oxides NOx, may be induced to consume less fuel, which may yield a higher combustion efficiency. Similarly, there is often a negative correlation between a produced particle mass PM and the fuel efficiency, meaning that an increased emission of particle mass PM from the engine is connected with an increased fuel consumption.
This correlation is the background to the widespread use of exhaust treatment systems comprising an SCR-catalyst, where the intention is the optimization of the engine's fuel consumption and emission of particles, towards a relatively larger amount of nitrogen oxides NOx produced. A reduction of these nitrogen oxides NOx is then carried out in the exhaust treatment system, which thus may comprise an SCR catalyst. Through an integrated approach in the design of the engine and exhaust treatment system, where the engine and exhaust treatment complement each other, a high fuel efficiency may therefore be achieved jointly with low emissions of both particles PM as well as nitrogen oxides NOx.